Summary
hearing court properly denied motion to suppress gun and drugs defendant abandoned during high speed flight from police
Summary of this case from People v. SmithOpinion
February 13, 1990
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Queens County (Giaccio, J.).
Ordered that the judgment is affirmed.
The hearing court properly denied suppression of a gun and drugs which the defendant discarded as he was being pursued by police officers during a high-speed car chase. A tip from an unidentified person who flagged down the officers on patrol, combined with the officers' observations at the scene corroborating the reported information, gave the officers an articulable basis for inquiring of the defendant as to his activities (see, People v Salaman, 71 N.Y.2d 869; People v De Bour, 40 N.Y.2d 210; People v Perry, 133 A.D.2d 380, affd 71 N.Y.2d 871). The fact that the police officer approached the defendant's automobile with his gun drawn did not transform an otherwise lawful stop into an arrest, since the police had a reasonable basis for suspecting that the defendant was armed (see, Matter of Oniel W., 146 A.D.2d 633, 634). Accordingly, the police were justified in exercising caution in order to ensure their personal safety (see, People v Chestnut, 51 N.Y.2d 14, 21, cert denied 449 U.S. 1018; People v Perry, supra). The actions of the defendant upon the officers' approach, to wit, driving westward in reverse in an eastbound traffic lane and fleeing the scene at high speed through traffic signals, established the requisite reasonable suspicion that criminal activity was afoot and justified the officers' pursuit (see, People v Leung, 68 N.Y.2d 734; People v Miller, 146 A.D.2d 809). The subsequent recovery of the physical evidence, which was discarded and abandoned by the defendant during his flight, was also proper (see, People v Boodle, 47 N.Y.2d 398, 404, cert denied 444 U.S. 969). Brown, J.P., Rubin, Kooper and Harwood, JJ., concur.